What I say unto you I say unto all, watch. Mark 13:37

July 24, 2013

As Secretary of State John Kerry pushesfull
steam ahead to try to bring the Israelis and Palestinian back to the
negotiation table, a new video is casting doubt regarding true Palestinian
intentions and tactics. Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious
Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in an on-camera sermon on Friday hinted any
peace deal secured would secretly be only a short-term arrangement by
comparing it to a truce the Muslim prophet Mohammed negotiated but broke
two years later.

This is just the latest example of
Palestinian leaders discussing their stepwise plan to liberate Palestine
from the “river to the sea,” starting with the late Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat.

At the Friday Ramadan services, which
were attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and
broadcast on Palestinian television, Habbash explained to Muslim
worshipers that Palestinian Authority officials “only through the wisdom
of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right
path” are headed toward “achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Mohammad]
did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it.”

Palestinian Media Watch – an Israeli research institution
that translates anti-Israel broadcasts in the Palestinian media – explains
that the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty of 628 A.D. refers to “a 10-year truce
that Mohammad, Islam’s Prophet, made with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca.
However, two years into the truce, Mohammad attacked and conquered Mecca.”

The Religious Affairs Minister emphasized
that Mohammed’s choosing the path of negotiation with an enemy was not
“disobedience” to Allah, but was rather “politics” and “crisis
management.”

Indeed, he broke the peace treaty two
years later and conquered Mecca.

The Palestinian minister called
Mohammed’s example “the model” to be followed.

According to a transcript provided by
Palestinian Media Watch, Habbash explained how Mohammed’s followers who
weren’t enlightened as to his true intentions were upset. “The hearts of
the Prophet’s companions burned with anger and fury. The Prophet said:
‘I’m the Messenger of Allah and I will not disobey Him.’ This is not
disobedience, it is politics. This is crisis management, situation
management, conflict management,” Habbash said, adding, “Allah called this
treaty a clear victory.”

In his sermon, Habbash made a
distinction between the Palestinian Authority strategy and Hamas which
rules Gaza, saying “All this never would have happened through Hamas’
impulsive adventure.” In his speech, he insisted that “We hate war. We
don’t want war. We don’t want bloodshed, not for ourselves, nor for
others. We want peace.”

The Palestinian Authority has been
insisting to Kerry that it will only negotiate on
the basis of the pre-1967 borders, which means it refuses to agree to
anything less than a full Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (West
Bank) and east Jerusalem, including the Old City, the Western Wall and the
Temple Mount which is the holiest site in the Jewish religion. Some
Israeli officials refer to those borders as “Auschwitz
borders,” because it would leave Israel only nine miles
wide at its narrowest point.

If Palestinian officials say this is
just a stepping stone, the suggestion is that the true goal is to take
over all of the land of Israel as part of a future Palestinian state. Note
the Palestinian Authority is considered by the U.S. and Europe to be
the more moderate Palestinian leadership, as opposed to the Islamist Hamas
which states openly that its goal is to destroy the State of Israel.

PMW writes, “Since the signing of the
Oslo Accords, there have been senior PA officials who have presented the
peace process with Israel as a deceptive tactic that both facilitated the
PA’s five-year terror campaign against Israel (the Intifada), and which
will weaken Israel through territorial compromise that will eventually
lead to Israel’s destruction.”

In 1994, Arafat also compared the Olso
Accords to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah saying, “This agreement [the Oslo
Accords], I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been
signed between our Prophet Mohammad and Quraish…”

Arafat was speaking at a mosque in
Johannesburg and did not know that he was being recorded on audiotape.

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas
Zaki in 2011 tried to calm critics of the peace agreement with Israel,
explaining, “the President [Mahmoud Abbas] understands, we understand, and
everyone knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea, or the
great goal in one stroke.”

“If I say that I want to remove it
[Israel] from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This
is not a [stated] policy. You can’t say it to the world. You can say it to
yourself,” Zaki told Al Jazeera.

Palestinian Authority Representative for
Jerusalem Affairs Faisal Husseini said in 2001, “This effort [the
Intifada] could have been much better, broader, and more significant had
we made it clearer to ourselves that the Oslo agreement, or any other
agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something
bigger.”

“We distinguish the strategic, long-term
goals from the political staged goals, which we are compelled to
temporarily accept due to international pressure. … [Palestine] according
to the higher strategy [is]: ‘from the river to the sea.’ Palestine in its
entirety is an Arab land, the land of the Arab nation,” Husseini added.

Here is the video of Habbash’s Friday
sermon excerpted and translated by Palestinian Media Watch: †